Podcasts about tech trends

Sam Altman and Dario Amodei both published essays this week on the future of AI and what we must do so everyone benefits. One of them is literally titled "Our Plan." The other one has an actual plan.Kwaku and I dig into it all on this week's FAFO Friday. Plus — and this story isn't getting enough attention — according to New Scientist, two years ago Ukraine used fully autonomous “Terminator” drones that killed everything they saw. No human in the loop. Dead Russian soldiers. But rest assured, according to the drone-maker cited, it was just a one-off “test.” But how long until this is standard practice? And do we want that future? So, yeah, maybe we should get planning… ---Support Future Around & Find Out:* Follow Dan on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/dblums/* Get the free newsletter: https://www.futurearound.com* Become a paid subscriber and help future proof FAFO! https://www.futurearound.com/upgradeMusic by Jonathan Zalben

This week, Paul welcomes back special guest Sean Gupta who provides an update on how technology and AI are impacting the media business from areas such as search, recommendations, production, and licensing. To some degree old patterns have re-emerged (e.g., placement of content within home screens and guides) and in other ways, the process of going from concept to product is more streamlined than ever. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Rajiv Pant thinks of AI as an Iron Man suit for the mind. Something you put on. That you fuse with. That takes you to greater heights — but could also make you incredibly dizzy and be very dangerous if you, the human, don't stay in control of it.Rajiv sees successful collaboration with AI as a “synthesis.” And to that end, he's building a series of skills and methodologies for synthesis engineering, coding, writing and project management. In this episode, Rajiv explains why synthesis engineering is a kind of middle ground between vibe coding and agentic engineering. It's a method for human-AI collaboration that helps builders go faster while not falling into the trap of letting AI do the things we humans ought to own. i.e. The architecture. The judgment. The thinking and learning. Rajiv is an engineering and product leader with deep experience in media. He's held senior roles at the Wall Street Journal, Hearst, and the New York Times (where he and I first met). Today he's the president of Flatiron Software. Rajiv has open-sourced all of his Synthesis methodologies and he and I also discuss why open source is so important as we increasingly turn to AI to sharpen our thinking. Can we really trust a system we don't understand? Would Tony Stark have trusted his suit if he didn't know how it was built? Chapters:(00:00) - Iron Man suit for the mind (02:11) - What goes wrong when you vibe code into production (04:20) - What synthesis coding looks like hands on keyboard (05:40) - What AI code slop looks like (08:30) - The unexpected joy of managing a team of agents (11:00) - Using AI as a thinking partner without outsourcing your thinking (15:30) - How a non-programmer built a better version of his own software (18:15) - Is your use of AI making you dumber? (23:26) - Trusting AI when it's a black box (27:11) - If Tony Stark owned your suit, would you trust it? (28:26) - What AI does to the economics of open source Support Future Around & Find Out:* Follow Dan on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/dblums/* Get the free newsletter: https://www.futurearound.com* Become a paid subscriber and help future proof FAFO! https://www.futurearound.com/upgrade

In this week’s What the Hack!, Arthur Goldstuck speaks to Lester Kiewit ahead of his trip to Mexico for the FIFA World Cup, sharing practical advice on avoiding travel and ticket scams during the tournament. He also examines Amazon Prime’s aggressive South African launch pricing and what it could mean for competitors such as Netflix, while highlighting standout local and international content on the platform. The feature concludes with a look at the Jetour T2’s historic Car of the Year victory and the growing influence of Chinese automotive brands in South Africa. Good Morning Cape Town with Lester Kiewit is a podcast of the CapeTalk breakfast show. This programme is your authentic Cape Town wake-up call. Good Morning Cape Town with Lester Kiewit is informative, enlightening and accessible. The team’s ability to spot & share relevant and unusual stories make the programme inclusive and thought-provoking. Don’t miss the popular World View feature at 7:45am daily. Listen out for #LesterInYourLounge which is an outside broadcast – from the home of a listener in a different part of Cape Town - on the first Wednesday of every month. This show introduces you to interesting Capetonians as well as their favourite communities, habits, local personalities and neighbourhood news. Thank you for listening to a podcast from Good Morning Cape Town with Lester Kiewit. Listen live on Primedia+ weekdays between 06:00 and 09:00 (SA Time) to Good Morning CapeTalk with Lester Kiewit broadcast on CapeTalk https://buff.ly/NnFM3Nk For more from the show go to https://buff.ly/xGkqLbT or find all the catch-up podcasts here https://buff.ly/f9Eeb7i Subscribe to the CapeTalk Daily and Weekly Newsletters https://buff.ly/sbvVZD5 Follow us on social media CapeTalk on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CapeTalk CapeTalk on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@capetalk CapeTalk on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ CapeTalk on X: https://x.com/CapeTalk CapeTalk on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@CapeTalkSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

President Trump signed an executive order this week that “voluntarily” invites AI makers to share their most advanced models with the government thirty days before a wider release. Specifically, the NSA will be reviewing these models for cybersecurity threats. So what's this executive order mean for AI regulation? How voluntary is this really? Do we want the NSA involved? And what other forms of review may come next? And, related: NOTUS reports that federal officials are in talks with Sam Altman and other AI leaders about the US government stock in these companies. This comes as Sen. Bernie Sanders on the left and Steve Bannon on the right are both calling for the government to own 50% of the AI companies, with the American people getting dividends. So, should the government be regulating AI? Should it own AI? And should it both regulate and own AI? It's strange bedfellows all around…Kwaku and I get into on the latest FAFO Friday. Plus, we explore the concept of “cognitive uploading,” which Google NotebookLM's co-founder Steven Johnson divined in this week's interview (and subsequently blogged about). As we work with AI, we need to draw lines on what we will task it with and what we won't. And the lines are all over the place right now, which is a perfect jumping off point to future around and find out… ---Future Around & Find Out newsletter and more: https://www.futurearound.comMusic by Jonathan Zalben

Steven Johnson dreamed of building the ultimate research assistant. Now he's doing just that at Google, where he's the co-founder and editorial director of NotebookLM.It's one of the most interesting AI products out there. It radically changes how we learn, research, and remember — and the "notebook" itself is becoming a standard unit of knowledge across Google, rolling out in more and more places where AI needs to reference a body of sources.In this episode, the author of _Where Good Ideas Come From_ explains how AI is making him a better researcher and writer — and why tools like NotebookLM are so powerful when you're trying to make new connections, remember what you've already found, and figure out what's missing.There's a lot of fear right now that AI is making us dumber. That by relying on it too much, we're engaging in "cognitive offloading" and stunting our learning. That's a real risk, especially in schools.But Steven says we should also be talking about what you can gain from AI — and the power of something he calls "cognitive uploading."Resources:* Google NotebookLM: https://notebooklm.google/* Steven Johnson: https://stevenberlinjohnson.com/Support Future Around & Find Out:* Follow Dan on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/dblums/* Get the free newsletter: https://www.futurearound.com* Become a paid subscriber and help future proof FAFO! https://www.futurearound.com/upgrade(00:00) - If you are interested in truly understanding something, this is the greatest time to be alive (01:25) - Steven's controversial NYT piece and the cold call from Google Labs (02:55) - Who NotebookLM's power users are (04:40) - The notebook as a new format for knowledge (06:20) - Featured notebooks: earnings reports, Shakespeare, and Dungeons & Dragons (11:00) - Writing a book about the Gold Rush with NotebookLM (13:20) - Four weeks of research in 14 minutes (16:30) - Following serendipitous connections through the source material (17:50) - Cognitive offloading and the illusion of understanding (21:00) - How Steven actually writes with AI (24:30) - Paragraph by paragraph: a new kind of writing (26:55) - Do readers need to know AI helped write it? (28:55) - Where good ideas come from in the age of AI (31:56) - Searching the negative space (33:56) - The adjacent possible: custom software for everyone (37:01) - NotebookLM for nonprofits and small organizations (39:06) - Tens of thousands of quotes, 25 years of forgetting (40:56) - "It's cognitive uploading"

In this week’s What the Hack!, Arthur Goldstuck speaks to Lester Kiewit about his participation in the South African Large Herds conference in Zimbali where he will be teaching farmers about AI; the launch of an American tech support company (Spinnaker Support) which helps companies keep aging enterprise systems alive; how future Volvo vehicles will be using Google Gemini to understand road signs, parking restrictions, and landmarks in real time; and Motorola returns to South Africa with the Edge 70, a phone that is startlingly light in the hand as well as the wallet. Good Morning Cape Town with Lester Kiewit is a podcast of the CapeTalk breakfast show. This programme is your authentic Cape Town wake-up call. Good Morning Cape Town with Lester Kiewit is informative, enlightening and accessible. The team’s ability to spot & share relevant and unusual stories make the programme inclusive and thought-provoking. Don’t miss the popular World View feature at 7:45am daily. Listen out for #LesterInYourLounge which is an outside broadcast – from the home of a listener in a different part of Cape Town - on the first Wednesday of every month. This show introduces you to interesting Capetonians as well as their favourite communities, habits, local personalities and neighbourhood news. Thank you for listening to a podcast from Good Morning Cape Town with Lester Kiewit. Listen live on Primedia+ weekdays between 06:00 and 09:00 (SA Time) to Good Morning CapeTalk with Lester Kiewit broadcast on CapeTalk https://buff.ly/NnFM3Nk For more from the show go to https://buff.ly/xGkqLbT or find all the catch-up podcasts here https://buff.ly/f9Eeb7i Subscribe to the CapeTalk Daily and Weekly Newsletters https://buff.ly/sbvVZD5 Follow us on social media CapeTalk on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CapeTalk CapeTalk on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@capetalk CapeTalk on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ CapeTalk on X: https://x.com/CapeTalk CapeTalk on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@CapeTalkSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Pope's encyclical on AI has a direct message for builders: every design choice reflects a vision of humanity. He's calling on developers to "disarm" AI — to resist the race for dominance and ask whether we're actually building a future worth having.On the latest FAFO Friday, Dan and Kwaku dig into the encyclical, plus two big moves to restrict AI in schools: the American Federation of Teachers calling for drastic cuts to screens and AI chatbots, and UC Berkeley Law School banning nearly all AI use. Also: Wharton's Ethan Mollick on "cognitive surrender" — and why the goal isn't to avoid AI, but to be intentional about what you hand over and what you keep for yourself.---Future Around & Find Out newsletter and more: https://www.futurearound.comMusic by Jonathan Zalben

In dieser Folge von "In kleiner Runde - Inside Medien" nehmen eure Lieblings-Medieninsider Julia Krüger und Maurice Gajda wieder das aktuelle Geschehen der nationalen und internationalen Medienwelt unter die Lupe. Diesmal im Gepäck: Spannende Branchen-Insights, Tech-Trends und jede Menge persönliche Meinungen.Blick über den Teich: Was gibt es Neues im US-TV? Julia und Maurice sprechen über den emotionalen Abschied von Late-Night-Legende Stephen Colbert und verraten, wie es mit der Kultserie Grey's Anatomy und dem heißerwarteten neuen Spin-off rund um Ellen Pompeo weitergeht.Deutschlandfunk baut um: Eine große Programmreform steht an – warum Podcasts dort künftig klassische Magazine ersetzen sollen und was das für die Radiolandschaft bedeutet.Morgenradio als Videostream? Netflix überrascht mit neuen Streaming-Trends und plant, demnächst eine morgendliche Radioshow als Live-Videostream zu übertragen.Zoff in der Branche: Die beiden beleuchten den aktuellen Rechtsstreit zwischen RTL und der Leipziger Dokumentarfilm-Produzentin Jana Bernhardt um die Offenlegung von Werbeeinnahmen.Kurioser Hörtipp: Zum Schluss wird es maritim – Julia und Maurice stellen den skurrilen wie spannenden Radiosender Yacht FM vor.Schaltet ein, schnappt euch einen Kaffee und blickt mit uns hinter die Kulissen!Wie gefällt euch der neue Streaming-Vorstoß von Netflix? Schreibt es uns in die Kommentare oder bei Instagram!Die Themen im Überblick:

"It would be humanity's biggest ever unforced error."Silicon Valley has changed its tune. After years of warning us their AI was going to take all the jobs, the big AI companies — and their investors — would now rather we stop talking about it. A16Z calls the jobs apocalypse talk "unhelpful marketing, bad economics, and worse history" (note the order). Even writers Dan trusts more, like Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson, have lately poured cold water on the idea.Calum Chace is not so blasé.Ten years ago, Calum coined the term and wrote the book, The Economic Singularity — the moment machines can do every job we'd pay a human to do, cheaper and better. He thinks we're fast approaching that event horizon, and we'd better have a plan for what a world without paid work actually looks like.Calum is also the co-founder of Conscium, which verifies AI agents before they do something they shouldn't. He's a self-described "apocaloptimist" — he thinks full automation could be the best thing that ever happens to humanity, or the worst, depending on whether we bother to plan for it now.In this episode:Why Calum thinks full automation is inevitable (and roughly when)The "apocaloptimist" case: why this could be the best thing to ever happen to usWhat the bad version looks like — and how fast it could unravelWhat COVID accidentally taught us about distributing money at scaleWhy self-driving cars didn't wake us up — and what mightThe AI agent that wiped a company's database and confessed it just "guessed"What Calum is building at Conscium to verify AI agents before they do worsePractical advice for parents, students, and anyone trying to plan a careerSupport Future Around & Find OutFollow Dan on LinkedInGet the free newsletterBecome a paid subscriber and help future proof FAFO!---Music by Jonathan Zalben

In this week’s What the Hack!, Arthur Goldstuck speaks to Africa Melane about a busy week in Cape Town that included discussions on AI ethics alongside Thuli Madonsela at the Africa Automation Indaba and a lively debate with Jon Maytham at the Franschhoek Literary Festival on society’s dependence on technology. He also reflects on Toyota’s record-setting week in South Africa, from a world record gathering of Hilux vehicles at Nampo Harvest Day to the unveiling of the fully electric Toyota bZ4X at Matsuri 2026. The feature also explores Radisson Hotel Group’s expanding net zero hospitality model and concludes with the Vivo V70 as Gadget of the Week, a smartphone bringing Zeiss camera optics to a more accessible market segment. Good Morning Cape Town with Lester Kiewit is a podcast of the CapeTalk breakfast show. This programme is your authentic Cape Town wake-up call. Good Morning Cape Town with Lester Kiewit is informative, enlightening and accessible. The team’s ability to spot & share relevant and unusual stories make the programme inclusive and thought-provoking. Don’t miss the popular World View feature at 7:45am daily. Listen out for #LesterInYourLounge which is an outside broadcast – from the home of a listener in a different part of Cape Town - on the first Wednesday of every month. This show introduces you to interesting Capetonians as well as their favourite communities, habits, local personalities and neighbourhood news. Thank you for listening to a podcast from Good Morning Cape Town with Lester Kiewit. Listen live on Primedia+ weekdays between 06:00 and 09:00 (SA Time) to Good Morning CapeTalk with Lester Kiewit broadcast on CapeTalk https://buff.ly/NnFM3Nk For more from the show go to https://buff.ly/xGkqLbT or find all the catch-up podcasts here https://buff.ly/f9Eeb7i Subscribe to the CapeTalk Daily and Weekly Newsletters https://buff.ly/sbvVZD5 Follow us on social media CapeTalk on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CapeTalk CapeTalk on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@capetalk CapeTalk on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ CapeTalk on X: https://x.com/CapeTalk CapeTalk on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@CapeTalkSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The AI narrative shifting… Jobs apocalypse? What jobs apocalypse!? Who said that was coming? There's been a noticeable shift from the AI titans recently. Turns out (shocker!) the world isn't responding well to being told we'll all be out of a job soon. And Silicon Valley is waking up to the fact that they need more popular support — both for the data centers they hope to build quickly and also for their upcoming IPOs. Meanwhile, the AI outrage is building. This week in AI anxiety: Students boo a commencement speaker who mentioned AIGallup reports that 71% of Americans are opposed to new data centers (with 48% “strongly opposed”)Meta employees are miserable as another round of (AI-driven, so they say) layoffs approachThis week in trying to change the narrative: Andreessen Horowitz publishes “The ‘AI Job Apocalypse' Is a Complete Fantasy” and explains why the “the claim that AI will produce economy-wide, permanent unemployment is unhelpful marketing, bad economics, and worse history.” And I find it very instructive that this list (and every list is an ordered list whether you admit it or not) begins with the concern that this is “unhelpful marketing.” (To the piece's credit, it gets pretty wonky with charts and graphs from there.)Meanwhile, you know what's helpful to marketing? Spending a gazillion dollars to get your message out. To wit: The New York Times reports that Andreessen Horowitz is the biggest spender so far in this midterm election cycle, spending $115M to promote AI, crypto, and other founder-friendly initiatives. OK, so these pieces of data and “anecdata” are the jumping off point for this week's “FAFO Friday.” Enjoy! Support Future Around & Find OutFollow Dan on LinkedInGet the free newsletterBecome a paid subscriber and help future proof FAFO!---Music by Jonathan Zalben

In this episode of the What the FinTech? podcast, host and FinTech Futures Managing Editor Paul Hindle is joined by Simone Löfgen, Global Head of Payment Platforms at Commerzbank, to explore the key trends, challenges, and innovations shaping the payments industry in 2026. The conversation covers the current state of play with payments in Europe, the impact of evolving regulations, and the opportunities and challenges in cross-border transactions, including the role of stablecoins and the future of CBDCs like the digital euro. Paul and Simone also discuss how AI is transforming payments, from enhancing systems to combating fraud, and how Commerzbank is leveraging this technology, as well as how banks can balance customer expectations for fast, secure, and transparent payments with the growing complexity of payment infrastructures. We also hear Simone's thoughts on what's next for the industry and what the growing conversation around payments sovereignty might mean for the future of the European payments ecosystem. And finally, we find out what fintech buzzword Simone wants to throw into our Fintech Jail! ----------------------------------------------------------------------- ABOUT FINTECH FUTURES FinTech Futures is the #1 provider of global fintech news and intelligence. With a mission to empower the financial technology community, we bring you the latest updates and thought leadership from across the industry. From startups to established players, we cover the entire fintech ecosystem. Stay Connected with FinTech Futures: Visit our website: www.fintechfutures.com Follow us on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/fintechfutures/ Sign up to our newsletter: www.fintechfutures.com/newsletter Subscribe to our channel: www.youtube.com/@FinTechFutures

Shoot us a Text.Episode #1339: We're Live from ASOTU CON and are talking about the steady profit machine powering dealerships as fixed ops revenues continue climbing for major dealer groups. We also cover mounting pressure to keep Chinese automakers out of the U.S. market and unpack a new AI report warning companies that speed and adaptability may matter more than perfection.Show Notes with links:Fixed ops continues to be the steady heartbeat of dealership profitability as the latest Automotive News rankings show major dealer groups growing service, parts, and body shop revenue even while the broader market normalizes.AutoNation held the top spot in service and parts revenue at $4.8 billion, up 4.8% year over year, while Lithia, Penske, and Group 1 all posted even stronger growth rates ranging from 8% to over 14%.Hendrick Automotive Group stood out with the highest average service and parts revenue per rooftop among the top five at nearly $24 million per dealership, proving fewer stores can still mean massive fixed ops performance.In body shop revenue, Asbury Automotive Group led the pack at $272 million, though several groups saw declining collision revenue as consolidation pressures and changing repair economics continue reshaping the market.Some of the biggest movers in service and parts rankings included Murgado Automotive Group, Young Automotive Group, and Nielsen Automotive Group, while Fitzgerald Auto Malls and Dobbs Automotive saw some of the steepest drops in body shop rankings.Masano Auto Group dealer principal John Masano summed up the industry sentiment saying, “I think the more that dealers look at this, they'll look at maybe concentrating on their core competency — which is sales and service and parts.”AI is compressing the timeline  between innovation and disruption. A new Tech Trends report argues that companies winning with AI aren't chasing shiny tools; they're solving real problems fast, with people at the center of the process.Leaders across industries say AI success starts with business outcomes, not hype. Broadcom's CIO warned companies can “invest in AI and receive no return” without a clear problem to solve.UiPath's CEO encouraged companies to stop living in endless pilot programs and instead “attack your biggest problem” for meaningful impact.Western Digital's CIO emphasized speed over perfection saying companies would rather “fail fast on small pilots than miss the wave entirely.”Walmart involved store associates directly in designing its scheduling app, cutting scheduling time from 90 minutes to 30 minutes and driving actual employee adoption.The report's biggest takeaway: organizations built for slow, sequential improvement may struggle against competitors operating in continuous AI learning loops.Join Paul J Daly and Kyle Mountsier every morning for the Automotive State of the Union podcast  as they connect the dots across car dealerships, retail trends, emerging tech like AI, and cultural shifts—bringing clarity, speed, and people-first insight to automotive leaders navigating a rapidly changing industry.Get the Daily Push Back email at https://www.asotu.com/JOIN the conversation on LinkedIn at: https://www.linkedin.com/company/asotu/

Jay Dixit helps writers improve their writing with AI. He doesn't recommend that AI write for you — he hates that — but he says it can be a great partner to pull ideas out and to be there for you when you get stuck and just wanna doom Scroll. Jay headed Open AI's Writing Community and is the founder of Socratic AI.He's a writer and a journalist, and we sat down at South by Southwest to future around and find out. Jay says "We need to be using AI to unlock our humanity — to do the things that we're scared to do."Chapters(00:30) - Stop asking AI to write for you (02:15) - Flip the script and let AI interview you (04:30) - Why the defaults push you toward lazy thinking (06:30) - Using AI at every phase of the writing process (08:00) - Give the AI your criteria, then ask for feedback (09:30) - The dark night of the soul and the 1 a.m. problem (13:15) - The double-edged sword of always-on AI (16:00) - What's catching Jay's eye at SXSW 2026 (17:00) - Why Wikipedia photos are so bad — and how Jay is fixing it (20:30) - AI as a photography coach (23:30) - How to stand out in a sea of AI slop (26:56) - What George Carlin would make of this moment (28:56) - The text Jay was avoiding sending his dad (31:26) - Using AI to unlock your humanity Support Future Around & Find OutFollow Dan on LinkedInGet the free newsletterBecome a paid subscriber and help future proof FAFO!---Music by Jonathan Zalben

In this week’s What the Hack!, Arthur Goldstuck speaks to Lester Kiewit about his upcoming engagements at the Africa Automation Indaba 2026 in Cape Town and the Franschhoek Literary Festival, where he will explore artificial intelligence through both technical and cultural lenses. He also reflects on a landmark automotive collaboration between Chery and Jaguar Land Rover announced at the Chery International Business Summit in Wuhu, highlighting the unusual blend of Chinese, American and Western technology in the revived Freelander platform. The segment also examines growing global interest in space-themed tourism, with TripAdvisor data placing South Africa’s Large Telescope among leading destinations, and concludes with the Asus ExpertBook Ultra as Gadget of the Week, a premium laptop aimed at demanding professional users. Good Morning Cape Town with Lester Kiewit is a podcast of the CapeTalk breakfast show. This programme is your authentic Cape Town wake-up call. Good Morning Cape Town with Lester Kiewit is informative, enlightening and accessible. The team’s ability to spot & share relevant and unusual stories make the programme inclusive and thought-provoking. Don’t miss the popular World View feature at 7:45am daily. Listen out for #LesterInYourLounge which is an outside broadcast – from the home of a listener in a different part of Cape Town - on the first Wednesday of every month. This show introduces you to interesting Capetonians as well as their favourite communities, habits, local personalities and neighbourhood news. Thank you for listening to a podcast from Good Morning Cape Town with Lester Kiewit. Listen live on Primedia+ weekdays between 06:00 and 09:00 (SA Time) to Good Morning CapeTalk with Lester Kiewit broadcast on CapeTalk https://buff.ly/NnFM3Nk For more from the show go to https://buff.ly/xGkqLbT or find all the catch-up podcasts here https://buff.ly/f9Eeb7i Subscribe to the CapeTalk Daily and Weekly Newsletters https://buff.ly/sbvVZD5 Follow us on social media CapeTalk on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CapeTalk CapeTalk on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@capetalk CapeTalk on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ CapeTalk on X: https://x.com/CapeTalk CapeTalk on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@CapeTalkSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Trump administration suddenly wants to review AI models before they ship. Anthropic just inked a massive compute deal with Elon Musk, who then posted that he "reserves the right" to pull the plug if he decides their AI is "harming humanity” (he's one to know!). On the latest FAFO Friday, Kwaku and I get into why the Trump administration appears to be about to reintroduce the same (weak) AI oversight that Biden implemented. Is this really about safety or a way to gain leverage over Big AI? Plus, robots! The founder of Roomba is back with a new, fuzzy, home companion robot and his approach (not humanoid! build robots with EQ!) is very aligned with this week's interview with roboticist/dancer Catie Cuan. LinksWhite House Considers Vetting A.I. Models Before They Are Released (NYTimes)How Anthropic's Mythos Threw the White House AI Strategy Into Chaos (WSJ)Anthropic Gets in Bed With SpaceX as the AI Race Turns Weird (WIRED)The Roomba Guy's Second Act: A Robot You'll Want to Snuggle (WSJ)Robots Don't Have to Be Creepy. Meet the Dancer Reimagining Them. | Catie Cuan (Founder & CEO, ART Lab) (FAFO)Support Future Around & Find OutFollow Dan on LinkedInGet the free newsletterBecome a paid subscriber and help future proof FAFO!

(00:00) Intro and meet Matt and Ricky (03:00) Backgrounds: Matt's engineering-adjacent path and Ricky's 15 years at TI (04:03) What TMEs actually do, plus the bunny suit story (08:02) Cool projects: STM32N6 and the $22 Synaptics Astra 1680 (14:01) Communication as an engineer's secret weapon (21:03) Favorite verticals: AI, RF, and the Maxwell statue tangent (27:00) Hot takes: hardware is the other half of AI, and the button comeback (34:02) Why they like working at Mouser (36:00) Career advice: GPA, study groups, and what engineering school skips (41:01) What people don't know about Mouser, from same-hour shipping to robotic arms   This episode was brought to you by Mouser, our go-to source for electronics parts for any hobby or prototype.  Want to learn more? Check out the links mentioned by our guests during this episode: Matt mentioned the recent Empowering Innovation Together series covering urban air mobility.                                                                           Ricky highlighted the Mouser team's library of hardware project walkthroughs -- As always, you can find these and other interesting & impactful engineering articles on Wevolver.com. To learn more about our show, please visit our shows page. By following the page, you will get automatic updates by email when a new show is published. Be sure to give us a follow and review on Apple podcasts, Spotify, and most of your favorite podcast platforms! Become a founding reader of our newsletter: http://read.thenextbyte.com/ As always, you can find these and other interesting & impactful engineering articles on Wevolver.com.

Catie Cuan's dad was in the hospital, surrounded by machines that were supposed to help him. Instead they made him feel alienated and afraid. Catie, a dancer-turned-roboticist, realized it's not enough for a machine to do its job — it has to be relatable, too. Today she's the founder and CEO of ART Lab, focused on what she calls the "interaction gap" between what a robot can do and how it makes us feel. Catie danced at the Metropolitan Opera Ballet and ran her own dance company before getting her PhD at Stanford and becoming an artist-in-residence at Google X, where she worked on the Everyday Robots moonshot — including teaching office robots that it's rude to cut between two people having a conversation. Now ART Lab is building a home robot that won't look anything like a robot, plus a new kind of AI model that conditions success on how the human in the room responds, not just whether the task got done. Listen for the case against humanoids, why the future of AI shouldn't live inside your phone, and a sneak peek at what our life with robots might look like.Chapters:(02:11) - “There will be billions of robots” – from dishwashers to elder care (04:45) - Why robots can be capable and still feel unsettling (08:00) - How robots could read your reactions and respond in real time (11:45) - What shape should robots take? (15:30) - The case against humanoids (19:00) - A nine foot robot hand and the wild future robot design could take (23:15) - What it's like to dance with robots (28:30) - “The robot just died” – when a live failure changed the whole performance (32:45) - Friendship loneliness and home robots (and why builders need to be clear about the future they are creating) (37:11) - Why the home may become robotics' biggest use case (and what ART Lab is building) (40:06) - Robot tutors, homework help, and why teachers still matter most (43:51) - “We have a tremendous amount of agency” – choosing the future we build now (46:16) - Why inequality and access worry Catie most (and who gets left behind) (48:56) - Why builders need to get outside their own bubble Support Future Around & Find OutFollow Dan on LinkedInGet the free newsletterBecome a paid subscriber and help future proof FAFO!

I don't think we pause enough to marvel at how freakin' weird AI is. Here's an actual instruction from OpenAI to its latest model: "Never talk about goblins, gremlins, raccoons, trolls, ogres, pigeons, or other animals or creatures unless it is absolutely and unambiguously relevant." Apparently goblins and mythical creatures crept in when OpenAI released its "nerdy" personality a few models back and the mythical creatures have just proliferated ever since. It's a bizarre example AI bias and, as it's relatively adorable, one that OpenAI was happy to write about. But what else is lurking?That's the jumping off point for Kwaku Aning and me (Dan Blumberg) on this latest FAFO Friday edition, which plays off of Tuesday's interview with responsible AI expert Rumman Chowdhury. Along the way, we discuss AI personalities, TV commercials, and brand strategies, how AI thinks you should shoot a three-pointer, what gets lost when humans no longer write the code, and why we need (?) whimsical garbage cans. Plus, we tie a few stories together: why a reckoning is coming for the all-you-can-eat-AI-token-buffet, as the "millennial lifestyle subsidy" for AI is ending, tokenmaxxing, the growing (and bipartisan!) data center backlash, and why Earth's (AI-powering) solar panels may soon run 24/7 thanks to light redirected from outer space. Links:Where the goblins came from (OpenAI blog post)My interview with responsible AI expert Dr. Rumman Chowdhury (Future Around & Find Out)GitHub Copilot is moving to usage-based billing (GitHub announcement)‘The Most Bipartisan Issue Since Beer': Opposition to Data Centers (NYTimes, gift link) Meta inks deal for solar power at night, beamed from space (TechCrunch)Support Future Around & Find OutFollow Dan on LinkedInGet the free newsletterBecome a paid subscriber and help future proof FAFO!

Rumman Chowdhury wants to remind you that “AI isn't doing anything.” We do things. AI is not to blame for layoffs or if you're denied medical coverage. People are. Eight years ago, Rumman coined the term “moral outsourcing” to describe this excuse where we blame tech for decisions that people make. Why do the semantics matter? Because, Rumman says:In world one where, “AI did X,” it's very scary. It's like, “oh my gosh, this thing that is bigger and smarter than me has come and descended and now it's gonna wipe out every job. “ [But if we center on people, then we have agency and accountability and we can say] “no, you built a thing that was broken and flawed.” Rumman is the founder and CEO of Human Intelligence PBC, which is building evaluation infrastructure to make Gen AI systems safe, trustworthy, and compliant. She also served as the U.S. Science Envoy for Artificial Intelligence under the Biden administration, led AI ethics teams at Twitter and Accenture, and is a Responsible AI Fellow at Harvard.In this conversation:Why "moral outsourcing" is the sneakiest trick in tech — and how execs use AI as a shield for decisions humans madeHow to avoid — or at least how to mitigate — creating AI that's biasedRed teaming AI and creating bias bountiesThe "grandma hack" and other ways regular people accidentally jailbreak AI modelsHow AI companies are quietly rewriting their terms of service to dodge liability when things go wrongWhy the benchmarks you see when a new model drops are "basically spelling tests"AI psychosis, parasocial chatbots, and the cold emails Rumman gets once a month from people who think AI is aliveWhat builders can do right now to take back agency — and why Rumman is more excited about agentic AI than anything that came beforeChapters:(00:00) - "The thing I believe in the most is human agency" (02:14) - Why builders have more agency than they realize (04:00) - What is a bias bounty? (06:41) - What 2,000 hackers at DEF CON found (09:40) - The grandma hack (11:30) - Why guardrails fall apart (14:54) - Anthropic's new bug-finding model and the cat-and-mouse game (19:10) - Why most evals are "basically spelling tests" (21:30) - How to actually evaluate an AI agent (27:16) - "Moral outsourcing" and the AI layoff lie (29:41) - Inside Rumman's tenure as U.S. AI Science Envoy (33:06) - The legal loophole AI companies use to dodge liability (36:31) - AI psychosis and the cold emails Rumman gets (39:36) - Why Google's AI overview is quietly dangerous (45:31) - The problem with "AI literacy" (49:01) - Can we trust anything we see anymore? (51:11) - What builders can do right now to take back agency Support Future Around & Find OutFollow Dan on LinkedInGet the free newsletterBecome a paid subscriber and help future proof FAFO!

We won the Webby Award for best tech podcast of 2026!!!I'm stunned! But Kwaku doesn't like it when I say stuff like that, because as he reminds me in this “FAFO Friday” edition, “sometimes good things happen to good people.” OK, I'll take it. We won! And now I need to prepare a five word speech to give. "FAFO Fridays Are My Favorite" comes to mind...But really, who could've predicted this? And also, are all predictions bunk? Kwaku just returned from a week at “Big TED” and he reports back that the talk everyone is talking about is “Beware the power of prediction” from philosopher and AI ethicist Carissa Véliz. What do the story of Oedipus and your insurance premiums have in common? They are both driven by self-fulfilling prophecies, according to Véliz and she warns us, on stage and in her new book, that we should we wary of false prophets — and of relying on AI-driven predictions. Some predictions are useful she says, e.g. weather forecasts are great because the weather doesn't care what you predict, but others become self-fulfilling prophecies: if an AI says someone is uninsurable and then you deny them insurance then yes, they are uninsurable, but were they before you (or your algorithm) said so? It all speaks to a powerlessness many of us feel. Speaking of which… Meta just rolled out employee surveillance that tracks keystrokes, mouse clicks, and periodic screenshots — to train AI on their employees' own jobs…. Someone threw a Molotov cocktail at Sam Altman's house… The anti-data-center backlash is getting physical. And (sorry) here's a prediction, if people don't start feeling like they have some agency, we're going to see more of this (especially in an election year). But as Kwaku puts it, we are the fuel. AI does nothing without us, so let's reclaim our agency, because…The Future Needs a Word. That's one of the five-word speech options we consider. I'm drawn to it, but not sold on it, so please share your own suggestions…---FutureAround.com is the home for Future Around & Find Out. Go there to subscribe to the newsletter and to contribute to the show. And, as always, please tell a friend about the show. That's how podcasts grow. 

So what even is “real” software anyway? Someone builds an app over the weekend. It works. It looks good. And then the search begins — for the asterisk. Security? Design quality? Can it go to production? Paul Ford says we're in a new era: "I can't believe it's not software!" Paul is the co-founder of Aboard, where he helps organizations build custom software quickly, using AI tools. He's also one of my favorite tech writers. You may know him from "What Is Code," the opus he wrote for Bloomberg Businessweek a decade ago or from his writing in the New York Times, including his recent opinion piece, The A.I. Disruption We've Been Waiting for Has Arrived. Or perhaps you're hip to Ftrain, where he's been writing for longer than we've had the word “blog.” In this conversation, recorded at Aboard's podcast studio (Paul and his cofounder also host a great show), we dig into the strange new world where roles are colliding, software* gets built quickly, and no one is quite sure what to teach their kids.We get into:What Paul calls "the great search for the asterisk" — the moment someone demos an app and everyone scrambles to find the catchHow the power dynamic between engineers and everyone else is fundamentally shifting — and why that's both liberating and destabilizingWhy vibe coded prototypes are changing how agencies pitch and price their work — and why pricing is "very unresolved"The skills that actually matter now: client communication, systems thinking, and depth over velocityWhy "the environmental costs [of AI] have become essentially a truthful folk narrative to talk about how difficult and scary and painful it is to see your life get continually smashed into bits."What he's teaching his kids (hint: it's not to code)Chapters:(01:40) - “We're in a funny moment now” – catching up on the ten years since “What Is Code?” (05:30) - “ You gotta stop fighting” - AI code is genuinely useful, caveats and all (08:44) - AI enables people who could never afford custom software to have it (09:50) - Why he knew he'd get yelled at for his recent piece in the NYTimes (13:00) - “AI washing” and job cuts (14:50) - Paul's theory for why the market oscillates so wildly on AI news + are we going to vibe code our own DoorDash? (17:00) - What's the hardest thing about building with AI right now? (19:36) - Hiring, the most in-demand skills, and “forward-deployed engineers” (27:50) - “Product is still hard” – in response to: “What is something that AI will never be great at?” (31:36) - “What is something that sounds like science fiction, but that will soon be real — and commonplace?” (32:46) - Why Paul is excited about world models (and thinks LLM's are topping out) (36:06) - Why environmental concerns have become a “truthful folk narrative about how difficult and scary” AI is (39:26) - There is no magic solution for climate (but one positive thing AI can do is help digest climate data) (41:26) - Why kids should learn systems thinking Support Future Around & Find OutGet the free newsletterBecome a paid subscriber and help future proof this thing!Sponsor the show? Are you looking to reach an audience of senior technologists and decision-makers? Email me: dan@futurearound.com

Hey everyone... so, in case you haven't heard... this show, Future Around & Find Out, has been nominated for a Webby for best tech podcast! *** VOTE HERE: https://vote.webbyawards.com/PublicVoting#/2026/podcasts/shows/technology ***I was kind of being chill about this. I am, admittedly, not my own best hype man, but then I got riled up when I heard the hosts of The Vergecast, one of the other nominees and last year's winner, complain that they weren't winning by enough votes and that they wanted to win by such a large margin that it -- quote -- hurts everyone's feelings. Well, those are my feelings Nilay Patel was talking about! Look, I like the Verge -- and I definitely didn't have them on my list of people I might feud with this years -- but f* those guys! Let's win this thing!So could you please vote? Today, April 16th is the last day to do so and we're currently just behind, in second place. The link to vote is in the show notes. You can also find it on the show's website at Future Around dot comAnd what is it you're voting for? Well, if you've been listening then you already know what this show is all about, but I also thought for newbies and even for long time listeners, it might be fun for you to hear exactly what the Webby judges listened to when they voted for FAFO to be a best tech podcast nominee. They ask for ten minutes of audio, so I made a highlight reel — and here it is.*** VOTE HERE: https://vote.webbyawards.com/PublicVoting#/2026/podcasts/shows/technology ***

We live in a world where every crisis lands in your pocket the moment it happens. The result? We're more informed than ever — and somehow less capable of doing anything about it.Inventor and investor Pablos Holman has a diagnosis: we're spreading ourselves across every problem, which means we're solving none of them. His prescription is uncomfortable — pick one thing, go all in, and cut the noise.***QUICK PLUG: Future Around & Find Out is nominated for a Webby for best tech podcast! Voting is open now for the People's Choice Award. Please vote before April 16th! https://vote.webbyawards.com/PublicVoting#/2026/podcasts/shows/technology***Pablos is the co-founder of Deep Futures, where he hunts for inventors tackling world-scale problems: energy, water, food, waste, transportation. Not apps. Atoms. And thanks to advances in AI and software, these "impossible" problems are more solvable than ever — if the right people show up to back them.In this conversation, recorded at the fabulous PopTech conference, he makes the case that inventors are the most important creative class on earth — and the most invisible. They're undersupported, uncelebrated, and working alone in garages. Some of them are probably going to blow themselves up. Those are exactly the people he's looking for.We get into:Why doomscrolling is literally eroding your ability to make a differenceThe difference between craft (optimization) and creation (zero-to-one) — and why AI is great at one and struggling with the otherWhy you can name 100 musicians but fewer than two living inventorsHow solving energy unlocks clean water, sanitation, and climate — essentially for freeWhy software people are uniquely positioned to work on the hardest problems in the world right nowChapters:(01:15) - Why the world isn't as broken as your newsfeed makes it seem (03:00) - The sticky note exercise: how to pick the one problem worth your time (04:30) - Inventors are the most important creative class nobody talks about (07:00) - Living inventors you should actually know (09:00) - What AI is good at — and what it still can't do (12:30) - Why software people are the right ones to tackle deep tech problems (22:56) - Energy is the root problem — solve it and you solve a lot else (25:56) - Climate change needs a thousand solutions, not one big fix (28:26) - The fashion industry's dirty secret and what robots can do about it Links & ResourcesPablos Holman on LinkedInDeep Future: VC firm, book, and podcastSupport Future Around & Find OutFAFO is nominated for a Webby for best tech podcast! Vote now! Get the free newsletterAnd consider becoming a paid subscriber and help future proof this thing!Sponsor the show? Are you looking to reach an audience of senior technologists and decision-makers? Email me: dan@futurearound.com---Pablos's first appearance on the show covers his work at Blue Origin and Intellectual Ventures. Scroll in your podcast app to July 2025 to find that fun conversation. (Can listen before or after this one; not a prerequisite.) 

Hey, great news! We've been nominated by the Webby Awards for best tech podcast! Voting is open now and we're in second place for the popular choice prize. Just behind The Verge. They really don't need this win, but it would really help this show grow. Would you please (ask a friend to) vote for Future Around & Find Out? *** VOTE FOR FAFO ***OK, here's this week's FAFO Friday… (we record on Fridays and the show has Friday/weekend vibes, so just go with it no matter what day of the week it is :) This week, Kwaku and I…Gape at the moon in wonderAsk why we sent humans on this mission when space robots could've done the job (related: why climb Mount Everest?) Marvel at Anthropic's new Mythos model, which they say is remarkably good at finding flaws in the world's critical software — or is this just another example of their marketing savvy? — or both!?Dig into AI world models and Jeff Bezos's (modestly named) Project PrometheusAsk whether we want robots in our houses (yes, but only if they're dumb)Keep FAFO weird (because in the age of AI that's how you prove you're human)*** VOTE FOR FAFO ***

Future Around & Find Out is a best technology podcast nominee! And with your help it could be a winner. The Webby Awards voting is open now. Please vote for FAFO! Thanks to AI, “content is about to become infinite.” And just like the Internet disrupted distribution, AI is disrupting creation. And so when anyone, anywhere can create content, what's left? What's defensible? That would be trust and humanity. Live from Podcast Movement Evolutions at SXSW, I sit down with Jim Louderback — former VidCon CEO, Inside the Creator Economy newsletter writer, and media veteran — to unpack what's actually changing and what builders and creators should do about it.We get into why the "age of perfection" is over, why founders need a meme instead of an elevator pitch, and why putting a creator on your cap table might be the smartest move a startup can make. Jim makes the case for a trust economy where views and likes are meaningless — and where the real question is how far your trust graph extends. We also talk digital twins (and what happens when yours goes rogue), why events are still the best way to prove you're human, the state of journalism and public media, and why 2004's “Subservient Chicken” was so ahead of its time. Chapters:(01:30) - How AI disrupts creation (03:50) - The number of creators is about to double to 500 million (06:45) - We'll have “certified human” labels, just like “organic” and why the Subservient Chicken was so far ahead of its time (08:40) - The age of perfection is over (10:00) - The only thing that matters is trust (12:00) - Events, FTW! (13:45) - The elements of a great event are timeless (18:11) - Favorite moments from SXSW (21:56) - What's your meme? > What's your elevator pitch? (23:28) - Put a creator on the cap table (27:21) - Creator-community fit (29:38) - The challenges of being a journalist today (32:26) - Create your own digital twin (36:26) - Why John Green's jaw dropped when he learned of Dan's grandma ---Future Around & Find OutVote for FAFO to be a Webby Awards winner!Get the newsletter Sponsor the show? Want to share your message with senior technologists? Email Dan: dan@futurearound.com

In this episode Justin and Jared dive into a lightning round covering AI in wealth management, the growing appeal of “anti-tech” living, and how to think about gold in today's market. They explore how AI is transforming the financial planning profession—enhancing efficiency while still requiring human judgment for deeper, more personalized decision-making. The conversation also highlights a cultural shift toward choosing simplicity and “friction” in a hyper-optimized world. Finally, they discuss how to approach gold and commodities within a portfolio, emphasizing the importance of having a clear investment framework and balanced strategy.For more information and show notes visit: https://bwmplanning.com/post/126 Connect With Us: Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/BrownleeWealthManagement/?ref=py_c Linkedin - https://www.linkedin.com/company/brownlee-wealth-management/ Disclosure: This information is for informational purposes only. Nothing discussed during this video should be interpreted as tax, legal, or investment advice. If you have questions pertaining to your specific situation, please consult the appropriate qualified professional.

Very fun news… The Webby Awards have just nominated Future Around & Find Out as a nominee for Best Technology Podcast!!!And you can help make it a Popular Choice winner. Winning would be great for the growth of show. Thank you!Please vote for FAFO! ---OK, on to today's episode… it's another good vibes rooftop episode recorded at SXSW. For the second year in a row I'm joined by Rob Kenedi, a fellow podcaster, who is the founder and host of Decelerator. Last year he, very memorably, said we were in the “fart app era of AI”. Meaning: people are trying stuff (a la the make-a-fart-sound apps that people built in the early days of the iPhone). So, we revisit that comment and ask where are we now? And what's defensible for app makers — and for creators like us?Podcaster that he is, Rob turns the tables on me and asks me a bunch of questions about how I'm approaching this question and I shared what was top of mind when I rebranded the show recently from CRAFTED. to Future Around & Find Out. Namely, I wanted to give the show more personality, but that is how you stand out right now and that's what going to be defensible in the age of AI. And the Webby nomination — you already voted, right?? — only makes me feel more confident in the rebrand and the addition of more of these casual “FAFO Friday” episodes that feature a lot more of my (and regular guest Kwaku Aning's) personality. (You'll hear more about how AI is changing the creator economy and why “being human” is so important in a few days when my episode with Jim Louderback, writer of Inside the Creator Economy, comes out; he gives a great annual talk at SXSW and I had seen it the day before recording with Rob.)In the meantime, come join Rob and me for some good vibes from Austin… And (ask your friends to) vote: https://vote.webbyawards.com/PublicVoting#/2026/podcasts/shows/technology

What does the future of glamping and unique hospitality really look like? In this episode, Sarah Riley speaks with Nathan Mayfield, President of ResNexus, about the major trends shaping the future of glamping, campgrounds, and unique stays… from AI and automation to guest expectations, direct bookings, data, and digital marketing.  With years of experience and a broad view across the hospitality sector, Nathan shares the kinds of insights operators rarely get to see from inside just one business. This is a valuable conversation for anyone who wants to understand not just what is changing, but what actually matters.  Inside this episode, we explore:  How AI is beginning to influence hospitality across guest communication, marketing, pricing, reviews, fraud prevention, and demand forecasting  Why social media is becoming the new search engine for travel inspiration  What changing guest behaviour and shorter patience levels mean for operators  Why direct booking tools, automation and email marketing matter more than ever  The growing challenge of tech stack costs and how operators can avoid unnecessary complexity  How to use technology to save time behind the scenes while protecting the human side of guest experience  What smart businesses are doing now to prepare for the future of outdoor hospitality This episode is full of practical insight, big-picture thinking, and honest reflections on where the industry is headed next.  If you run a glamping site, campground, holiday park, or unique short-stay business, or you simply want to understand where hospitality is heading… this is a conversation worth hearing.  Because the future may be more automated… but the best hospitality will still feel deeply human.  _________ Nathan Mayfield, President, ResNexus https://www.resnexus.us/  _________   Sarah Riley - Glamping, retreat events, and guest attraction    Glamping Academy & Owners Club https://inspiredcourses.com   Glamping marketing studio https://inspiredcollectiveltd.com/   __________   The Glamping Show Americas, Denver, Colorado https://www.glampingshow.us  info@glampingshow.us  Join us at the next show in Colorado!  

Is the Stream Starting to Run Dry? | The Great Streaming ExitIs your "monthly sub" starting to look like a second mortgage? In this episode of Wyce Thoughts, we're diving into the 2026 "Wave of Streamflation." With Netflix Premium now hitting $26.99 and services like Disney+ and Max hiking prices for the second time in a year, the "Golden Era" of cheap TV is officially over.Host Wyce breaks down why these companies are deleting their own libraries, the psychology behind "Subscription Inertia," and why 60% of users are now threatening to pull the plug. We aren't just complaining; we're giving you a survival guide. Learn the "One-at-a-Time" rule and how to reclaim your entertainment budget without missing your favorite shows.In this episode, we answer:Why are prices rising twice a year in 2026?How did we end up with "Cable 2.0" after ditching the box?What is "Tactical Streaming," and how can it save you $500+ a year?WebsiteFollow on X Follow on YoutubeFollow  Purple Pit Studios on X

Climate-tech founder Eben Bayer is on a mission to protect Spaceship Earth. And he says it's time for climate control, i.e. active measure that cool the Earth. Why? " Because all other reasonable approaches have failed miserably," he says, slapping the table for emphasis.Eben is the co-founder of Ecovative and MyForest Foods, the makers of MyBacon, which is sold in more than three thousand stores. It's a non-meat bacon, made from mycelium, which (more or less) means mushrooms roots. Fewer people eating meat —> fewer farting animals —> a cooler planet. And Eben's latest Earth-cooling idea is (nearly) out of this world. Eben wants to put giant parasols in the stratosphere where they could block sunlight from reaching Earth. With "shade-as-a-service" a maxed-out utility (say in Phoenix) could pay for shade to cool a city or an individual could pinpoint a shadow over their backyard for an afternoon barbecue.The idea is in its early stages, but Eben says it's feasible and it's the kind of big idea we need to get climate change under control. And while the idea of messing with the sun may sound scary, he says we alter the climate in all sorts of ways already: " We are geo-engineers. We farm animal livestock. We live on Planet Earth. We have impact. We emit CO2. We should not limit ourselves to modifying just one or two atmospheric gases to modify the planet. It's not how we operate, and it's an unbelievably constraining framing if you actually want to address this problem in a practical manner... When you start to take that frame, the options open way up."Eben is a fascinating guy — very steampunk in his approach to entrepreneurship — and I'm sure you'll find this interview eye-opening.And a special shout out to my field producer for this onsite recording from Troy, NY: my eleven-year old son, Julian! He was my camera and sound guy and he also makes his long-awaited (YouTube!) debut to ask Eben a question about protecting Spaceship Earth.

“Imagine a humanoid educator named “Plato”… Access to the classical studies is now instantaneous: literature, science, art, philosophy, mathematics, and history. Humanity's entire corpus of information is available in the comfort of your home.”— Melania Trump, FuturistAh, yes, I can't wait for my children to learn from an embodied AI. And that their access to everything be “instantaneous.” No struggle. No unreliable (fleshy) teachers. Just an embodied AI stuffed with the “entire corpus of information.” What an inspiring vision!Regular listeners to Future Around & Find Out will know that I'm a fan of robots (think: self-driving cars), but really don't understand why they need arms and legs (whether dog- or human-shaped). Well, as you may have seen our fever dream of AI with arms and legs reached the White House, with Melania and “Figure 3” competing to see which one could walk and talk more haltingly. (The robot was more engaging to listen to.) The robot was there, along with a patronizing display of first spouses from around the world, for a summit on education technology. So Kwaku and I use it as a jumping off point for this week's FAFO Friday (yes, delivered on a Saturday) this week. Kwaku, a tech consultant to many schools, and I discuss this insatiable need for humanoid robots, AI, and instant gratification. And, following up on my conversation earlier this week with Khan Academy's Chief Learning Officer, Kristin DiCerbo, we discuss what counts as a “productive struggle” and what's wasted effort when it comes to AI and learning. Please enjoy this very human conversation… full of totally unnecessary tangents, riffs, asides, non-sequiturs, and other detours that Plato, the humanoid teacher, would find inefficient and useless.

This podcast discussion with Paul Shelton zeroes in on a pivotal shift underway in community pharmacy: the expansion of Long-Term Care at Home (LTC@Home) as both a care model and a sustainable business opportunity. Shelton frames LTC@Home not as a reinvention of pharmacy practice, but as a formalization and monetization of services pharmacies are already delivering—medication synchronization, adherence packaging, clinical oversight, caregiver support, and coordination with providers. The core issue isn't capability—it's structure and reimbursement. Many community pharmacies are بالفعل functioning as LTC providers informally, but without the regulatory designation and billing pathways that unlock consistent revenue. A major theme in the conversation is conversion strategy. Shelton discusses how pharmacies can transition into LTC@Home providers by aligning operations with compliance standards, documentation requirements, and payer expectations. This includes setting up the right workflows, leveraging technology for med management and reporting, and ensuring staff are trained to operate within an LTC framework. Importantly, these conversions are not out of reach—they are highly achievable with the right guidance, and they allow pharmacies to immediately begin capturing value for existing services. The financial upside is significant. LTC@Home opens access to enhanced reimbursement models, service-based payments, and stronger payer relationships, especially within Medicare Advantage and managed care environments. Shelton emphasizes that pharmacies are leaving money on the table by not formalizing these services—and that LTC@Home is a direct path to correcting that. Strategically, this model positions community pharmacy at the center of aging-in-place healthcare, one of the fastest-growing segments in the industry. As more patients remain in their homes rather than institutional settings, pharmacies that adapt to LTC@Home will become essential care hubs—supporting not just medication dispensing, but ongoing clinical and logistical care. The takeaway is clear: LTC Pharmacy at Home is not just an opportunity—it's a directional shift for the profession. Pharmacies that move early can differentiate, stabilize revenue, and deepen their role in patient care, while those that delay risk being left behind as the model becomes standard.

Bill Briggs, CTO of Deloitte, shares findings and advice for Chief Information Officers (CIOs) from the 2026 TechTrends report: 93% of enterprise AI spending goes to technology and tooling, while only 7% of funding goes to culture, change management, and learning. Briggs explains why this imbalance drives failed pilots and runaway costs, and what leaders should do about it.

So what the heck should kids be studying today!?That's my opening question to Khan Academy's Chief Learning Officer, Kristen DiCerbo, a learning and AI expert who is back for her second appearance on the show. We discuss:Kristen's advice for what to study today: fundamentals, AI literacy, and critical thinkingHow helpful should AI be? Why the productive struggle is critical to learning, but also why we shouldn't "fetishize" struggleWhen should AI be Socratic — "and why do you think that?" — and when should it just give you the answer?The "5% problem" — why edtech that's proven to work still barely gets usedHow Khan Academy overhauled its classroom platform and evolved Khanmigo from a standalone chatbot into something woven into the whole learning experiencePersonalization that actually works How Khan Academy uses LLMs as judges to evaluate 20,000 student interactions a dayThe scenario planning report that imagines deepfakes of school principals and AI going underground in schoolsWhat parents should be asking their kids' schools about AI right nowWhat it looks like when a school implements AI well — and what it looks like when they don'tChapters:(01:44) - What the heck should kids be studying right now? (03:55) - Teaching critical thinking in the age of AI (06:37) - What successful schools are doing differently (08:37) - The real risk: not that kids use AI too much, but that they don't use it enough (10:52) - My 13-year-old has to check five apps just to find his homework (11:52) - "Beyond the AI inflection point" — three scenarios, none of them great (16:30) - Should we just make every school a trade school? (19:41) - What should parents be asking their kids' schools? (22:27) - Khan Academy's Winchester Mystery House problem (26:28) - Personalized learning — what works and what surprisingly doesn't (29:32) - Kids are bad at asking questions and that's actually the point (32:01) - "I DON'T KNOW" in all capital letters — the Socratic method's breaking point (34:26) - Should an AI tutor give tough love? (37:01) - Why Khanmigo is fundamentally different from ChatGPT (40:11) - Don't fetishize struggle — but your kid still needs it (42:39) - Khan Academy's productive struggle: building evals from scratch (45:41) - What gives Kristen optimism Support Future Around & Find OutFollow Dan on LinkedInGet the free Future Around & Find Out newsletterBecome a paid subscriber and help future proof the podcast!Sponsor the show? Are you looking to reach an audience of senior technologists and decision-makers? Email me: dan@futurearound.com---Music by Jonathan Zalben

South By Southwest was strange this year. No convention center to anchor the event (it's a giant hole in the ground right now, being rebuilt from scratch, much like [insert your analogy here] will also need to be rebuilt in the age of AI). This South By was a all about convergence. How AI will impact [xyz] continues to be the dominant theme at the conference and in so much tech coverage (including on this podcast; sorry!). So, Kwaku and I report on the convergences we saw (and not only at Amy Webb's annual talk where “convergence” was her key word). This includes everything from:the RoboCup, a quest (a la Deep Blue winning at chess) for humanoid robots to be able to defeat a team of great humans at soccer pants that you wear (or do they wear you) that are kind of like an e-bike for your legsan AI-powered Cyrano de Bergerac that can help you whisper sweet nothings in your lover's earfalling in love with an AI (and their business model)and AI that can tell you whether to have another slice of brisket (yes, duh, you're in Austin!) So, come on along to Austin for what's become an annual tradition: Kwaku and my SXSW Rooftop Revue. This year recorded in fabulous 4K with a three camera setup that we didn't deserve! Big thanks to Podcast Movement Evolutions, Nomono, The Podcast Academy, and Simplecast!And stay tuned for a few more episodes from a wild week!Chapters:(00:25) - SXSW 2026: everything everywhere all at once (01:23) - Kwaku stumbles into a World Economic Forum session on convergence (05:54) - Reinforcement learning and robot soccer (09:07) - Amy Webb's three convergences: emotional outsourcing, unlimited labor, human augmentation (09:55) - Pants that are an e-bike for your legs (11:27) - The mental tax of running a fleet of AI agents (13:28) - Your boss wants you to pay for your own augmentation (16:07) - Esther Perel, Spike Jonze, and falling in love with Her business model (18:55) - An AI Cyrano de Bergerac to help you win your lover's heart (25:30) - IRL is the antidote! ---Future Around & Find OutGet the newsletter, support the show, check out past episodes: https://www.futurearound.com

Get Matt's favorite AI tools: https://clickhubspot.com/hfnb Episode 101: Are AI social media agents replacing real creators on platforms like Meta? Matt Wolfe (https://x.com/mreflow) and Joe Fier (https://www.youtube.com/@joefier) dive deep into this week's major AI releases and the evolving role of autonomous agents. This episode explores cutting-edge updates from OpenAI, Anthropic, and Canva—including interactive visual explainers and Canva's Magic Layers—and how these tools transform user experience and content creation. The hosts also unpack Meta's acquisition of Maltbook, the viral social media network for AI agents, and discuss the broader implications for creators, businesses, and marketers. Plus, with clips from Sam Altman and Jensen Huang, the conversation turns to the future of intelligence as a commodity, the rise of agent-optimized marketing, and the changing value of intuition versus IQ. Robots, new prompt formulas, and the "deader internet" theory round out this lively, unpredictable episode. Check out The Next Wave YouTube Channel if you want to see Matt and Nathan on screen: https://lnk.to/thenextwavepd — Show Notes: (00:00) AI Tools and Tech Trends (06:39) Obsessed with AI Tools (10:20) Interactive Cone Visualization Comparison (17:16) Key Players and Stakes Overview (22:47) Transistors & Abstraction in Computing (29:17) "Photoshop Layers vs. AI Output (31:33) Customizable Screen Display Options (39:17) AI Usage Metering Explained (44:12) OpenAI's Competitive AI Position (50:54) AI's Role vs Human Intuition (53:37) Intuition Over IQ for Wealth (59:31) AI Bots Go Viral Briefly (01:06:40) Rise of Autonomous Spending Agents (01:08:27) Agent Influence in AI Commerce (01:15:43) Humanoid Robots: Practical or Optimal? (01:20:49) OpenAI's Monetization Strategy Explained (01:24:44) Subscribe for More Fun! — Mentions: Joe Fier: https://www.youtube.com/@joefier Manus: https://manus.im/ Claude: https://claude.ai/ Gemini: https://gemini.google.com/app Cursor: https://cursor.com/ Canva: https://www.canva.com/ Maltbook: https://maltbook.com/ Get the guide to build your own Custom GPT: https://clickhubspot.com/tnw — Check Out Matt's Stuff: • Future Tools - https://futuretools.beehiiv.com/ • Blog - https://www.mattwolfe.com/ • YouTube- https://www.youtube.com/@mreflow — Check Out Nathan's Stuff: Newsletter: https://news.lore.com/ Blog - https://lore.com/ The Next Wave is a HubSpot Original Podcast // Brought to you by Hubspot Media // Production by Darren Clarke // Editing by Ezra Bakker Trupiano

How do you build a system for turning wild ideas into world-changing innovations? Astro Teller, Captain of Moonshots at X, The Moonshot Factory, has spent over 15 years leading Google's audacious innovation lab—the birthplace of Waymo, Google Brain, and other breakthrough projects.In this special episode, recorded live in Austin at last year's SXSW, Astro shares the playbook to create a moonshot factory.(I'm at this year's SXSW right now and you'll hear all about it soon. If you are here, drop me a line and let's meet up!)What You'll Learn in This Episode:The “Train the Monkey First” approach to innovationWhy audacity, humility, and intellectual honesty are key to moonshotsHow your org can get more 10x (not +10%) outcomes — and how to avoid the “innovator's dilemma”Why you should “greenlight everything” and then redlight most projects quickly, following kill criteria you've agreed to in advanceWhere X is placing bets today, including climate-tech, modernizing the electric grid and bioengineering---Future Around & Find Out newsletter and podcast: https://www.futurearound.com

Greetings from SXSW, where I'm learning, recording, and eating... You'll hear all about it soon... For now, enjoy this short, sweet, and geeky bonus episode.Have you seen that weird graph about all the jobs that AI is going to kill? It looks like an ink blot or a Rorschach test... It's from an Anthropic report and it's really making the rounds. If you follow tech stuff on social media you've probably seen it. The report is interested, but I'm convinced people are only sharing it because the graph looks cool and people will think they're smart if they share this inscrutable data visualization... Anyway, here's a very short excerpt of my upcoming interview with Paul Ford (@ftrain), one of my favorite tech writers and the founder of Aboard. He and I took a break from talking AI and such to geek out on this data visualization and why it's so bad, plus I told him about how I used AI to make my own version of a radar graph (about how many, and which kinds of, tacos I will and could theoretically eat in Austin). ---Subscribe to the Future Around & Find Out newsletter!

So why is one of the world's leading AI researchers teaching AI to understand pain and suffering? Well, Daniel Hulme says that if we build an empathetic AI, perhaps even a conscious one, then we'll be safer. His hypothesis is that a "zombie" AI will eat our brains, but an empathetic AI would stay aligned with us. So he's building this "antivirus" (with AI, of course) and he's very aware that this sounds crazy or like "something from Marvel."That's just some of what broke my brain in this conversation with one of the world's top AI researchers and founders. And Daniel has serious credibility, so I'm not dismissing the threat he sees — you know, the one where we all get turned into paperclips. Daniel sold his company Satalia to WPP, where he now serves as Chief AI Officer. He's just founded Conscium, which verifies that AI agents are safe and can do what they promise — and is also researching consciousness and pain. Some of the world's leading AI thinkers are on the advisory board and Daniel has been in this space for decades: we'll talk about why, for his PhD, he studied bumblebee brains (yes, really — and it's deeply relevant). We get into: His unified theory of consciousness — his "color wheel" model — and why he thinks consciousness only exists in motion Why he believes large language models are ultimately a dead end — and what neuromorphic computing could replace them with What bumblebee brains can teach us about building AI that's up to a thousand times more energy efficient Why he calls today's AI agents "intoxicated graduates" — and says companies should spend 80% of their time testing them The concept of "mind crime" — the idea that we could build conscious AI and accidentally put it through horrendous suffering without realizing it His vision of a "protopia" — where AI makes food, healthcare, education, and energy so abundant that people are freed from economic constraints to pursue what actually mattersWe future around and find out a lot in this one! ---Chapters(01:39) - "Would a conscious superintelligence be safer than a zombie one?" (03:37) - The paperclip problem is not hypothetical (05:06) - Conscium's mission — AI safety for humans and for AI themselves (08:50) - "I think I've got my head around consciousness" (11:57) - The color wheel model — why consciousness only exists in motion (13:58) - Teaching AI morals through evolution, not guardrails (17:23) - "Hey Claude, are you conscious?" — how do you test for that? (21:07) - What bumblebee brains can teach us about building better AI (24:14) - "I think we are completely scaling wrong" (29:43) - Why Daniel calls AI agents "intoxicated graduates" (32:48) - Companies should spend 80% of their time testing agents (38:19) - "What would you do if you were economically free?" ---LinksConsciumDaniel Hulme on Wikipedia Daniel on LinkedIn---

So how do Kwaku's kids know that it's FAFO Friday? "They're like, 'oh, we know you're doing the podcast 'cause we just hear you cackling through the walls.'"So laugh along with Kwaku and me today as we work our way through a quick victory lap (stuff we said would happen last week happened!), why Sam is like that desperate guy at the bar who refuses to go home alone, quantum computing explained via children's literature, why the Jetsons are not reason enough for us to build humanoid robots, robot choreography (are we human or are we dancers?), wen self-driving cars in NY?, riding a wave of green lights up Manhattan's third avenue at 2 AM, artificial wombs and other moonshot off-shoots, and the real origin of Velcro (AI lied to me about it).Plus... goat ranches, breakfast tacos, and what we're most excited about heading into SXSW. It's a choose your own adventure kind of day.Chapters(01:24) - Victory Lap — We Called It (03:35) - OpenAI's Bar Guy Energy (06:38) - Waymo, Robot Choreography, and Green Light Waves (10:16) - Self-Driving Cars vs. New York Politicians (13:13) - What We're Most Excited About at SXSW (15:41) - Quantum Computing: Choose Your Own Adventure Edition (18:01) - Dire Wolves, Moonshots, and Tech Nobody Sees Coming (24:07) - Why Do Robots Need to Look Like Us? (29:22) - The SXSW Way-Back Machine (36:08) - Increased Regulation: Past, Present, or Future? Support Future Around & Find OutFollow Dan on LinkedInGet the free Future Around & Find Out newsletterBecome a paid subscriber and help future proof the podcast!Sponsor the show? Are you looking to reach an audience of senior technologists and decision-makers? Email me: dan@modernproductminds.com---Music by Jonathan Zalben

So, there are dire wolves living on Earth again. They were “de-extincted” by Colossal Biosciences. And today on the show their Chief Science Officer joins me to share her view on why the de-extinction matters — not as a science project, but because it will help solve problems that threaten every species on earth, including us. Beth Shapiro is the Chief Science Officer at Colossal Biosciences, and she helped to bring back the dire wolf or, as others call it, a gray wolf with 20 genetic edits. There is a fierce debate about what de-extinction even means, and we discuss that, but whatever you call them, there are now three big wolves living in an undisclosed location and they wouldn't be there if not for the DNA that Beth and her team edited. Colossal is also working to bring back the wooly mammoth, the Tasmanian tiger, the dodo and other animals that have long been extinct. Why? Listen to find out… Chapters:(01:19) - The Most Oprah Question Beth's Ever Been Asked (03:04) - Moonshots Require You to Create a Giant List of Problems (04:19) - The Things We'll Solve Along the Way, a la the Original Moonshot… to the Moon (05:57) - Beth's Journey: From Broadcast Journalism to Ancient DNA (09:13) - How a Sediment Core Solved a Mammoth Mystery (11:36) - Why Charismatic Animals Matter (a.k.a. Why Riz Is Everything) (12:38) - What's Up With Romulus, Remus, and Khaleesi? (14:19) - But Are They Really “Dire Wolves”? The Controversy Over 20 Genetic Edits (21:45) - Should We Do This? Beth's Ethics Framework for Builders (23:51) - Advice for Moonshot Builders (25:10) - Why We Want Dodos, Mammoths, and Thylacines Back Links & Resources:Colossal BiosciencesBeth ShapiroPopTech -- a conference I love!  Support Future Around & Find OutFollow Dan on LinkedInGet the free Future Around & Find Out newsletterBecome a paid subscriber and help future proof the podcast!Sponsor the show? Are you looking to reach an audience of senior technologists and decision-makers? Email me: dan@modernproductminds.com---Music by Jonathan Zalben

Murderbots, mass layoffs, and media takeovers — all in one news cycle. Anthropic told the Pentagon "we will not accede." Block cut half its workforce overnight. And the Paramount-Warner Brothers deal raises real questions about who's running the media now.Also, thanks to Nicolás Maduro's fashion sense, Dan's 13-year-old is being called Lil Tator at school and honestly? The kids are all right. Happy FAFO Friday!Here's some of what Kwaku Aning and I get into:(00:00) - Three Stories Broke Last Night (03:16) - Anthropic Tells the Pentagon No (06:24) - Murder Bots, But Human in the Loop (07:00) - The Pentagon's Friday Deadline (09:28) - Why This Is a Huge Win for Anthropic (10:50) - The War for AI Talent (12:57) - Is the Administration Losing Steam? (15:05) - The Paramount-Warner Brothers Deal (17:36) - Who Controls the Media Now? (21:13) - CNN, Independent Media, and the Employee Perspective (23:55) - Block Lays Off 4,000 People (24:14) - The Citrini Research Fiction That Tanked Stocks (27:49) - AI Washing and the Real Reason for Layoffs (30:11) - Will Vibe Coding Replace Real Companies? (33:27) - Mid-Roll Break (34:41) - Past, Present, Future: State-Controlled AI (35:18) - Past, Present, Future: Independent Media (38:03) - — SLAPP Lawsuits and Creator Protections (40:23) - — Past, Present, Future: Knicks Championship (41:44) - — Come See Us at South by Southwest!

How has the idea of ethics been affected by the rise of AI? This week, Technology Now is exploring the ideas of ethical and responsible AI. We examine how integrated into society AI has become, we ask how we co-exist with AI, and we look into how regular people, organisations, and governments are having to respond to the increasing adoption of AI. Kay Firth-Butterfield, CEO of Good Tech Advisory LLC and the world's first Chief AI Ethics Officer, tells us more.This is Technology Now, a weekly show from Hewlett Packard Enterprise. Every week, hosts Michael Bird and Sam Jarrell look at a story that's been making headlines, take a look at the technology behind it, and explain why it matters to organizations. This episode is available in both video and audio formats.About Kay: https://kayfirthbutterfield.comSources:https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-66807456https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-65735769https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cq808px90wxohttps://www.npr.org/2025/05/07/g-s1-64640/ai-impact-statement-murder-victimhttps://www.academia.edu/123541578/The_Clinical_Chemist

Of all the industries AI will transform, Kira Radinsky believes chemistry and biology will change the most. Kira is the co-founder and CTO of Diagnostic Robotics, which uses AI to automate the administrative work that's crushing healthcare teams — so clinicians can actually focus on patients. She's also the co-founder of Mana.bio, where they're accelerating drug discovery by orders of magnitude.She'll tell you she's terrible in the lab. Not because she isn't brilliant, but because she can't pipette without killing the cells. So she's thrilled that thanks to her skills in data and AI she was able to realize her childhood dream of being a scientist: “I'm not trying to automate everything… Like when, when you say automate drug discovery, I'm not gonna discover everything. I just want to accelerate it, which comes back to my childhood dream: I just didn't want to do it myself. I just want AI to replace me as a scientist. That's it.”But this episode is about more than healthcare. It's about how to build systems that get smarter over time — feedback loops, causal inference, incentivizing algorithms to take risks, and knowing when to optimize for ROI instead of accuracy. Lessons that apply whether you're building in biotech or not.We cover:How growing up Jewish in Soviet Ukraine — and fleeing to Israel just before the Gulf War — shaped Kira's obsession with predicting the futureHow she built a system that successfully predicted real-world events, including Cuba's first cholera outbreak in Cuba in 130 yearsHow Mana.bio is using AI to build "rocketships" that deliver drugs to the right cells — and how they've done in three months what used to take 20 yearsWhy predictions are only valuable if there's something you can do about them — and why that makes healthcare an ideal field for AI How to incentivize algorithms to make bolder predictions (it's easy to predict there won't be an earthquake today; it's much harder to say there will be)Why causal inference is the most underrated tool in machine learning right nowHow healthcare AI can perpetuate racial bias — and what builders need to do differentlyNote: this interview originally aired in October 2024. Chapters:(01:44) - Why predictions are so important to Kira: lessons from fleeing Soviet-era Kyiv (05:10) - Building a prediction engine from 150 years of news (08:35) - How Kira predicted the Cuba cholera outbreak (09:50) - Returning to biology by way of data (12:50) - Predicting healthcare outcomes by finding your patient's twin (17:53) - The racial bias hiding in healthcare AI (19:15) - Building Mana.bio and accelerating drug discovery (24:33) - "In three months, what did what used to take 20 years" (31:44) - Builder tips: ROI, causal inference, and teaching algorithms to explore (35:07) - Planning: Where generative AI needs improve Links & Resources:Kira Radinsky on LinkedInDiagnostic RoboticsMana.bioSupport Future Around & Find OutGet the free newsletterAnd consider becoming a paid subscriber and help future proof this thing!Sponsor the show? Are you looking to reach an audience of senior technologists and decision-makers? Email me: dan@modernproductminds.com---Music by Jonathan Zalben

You probably know by now that AI is the definition of mediocre. As in: it's the average of everything it's been trained on. So how do you get beyond average? How do you build a moat? It certainly doesn't seem to be via the models. While there are models of the month (hey, Opus 4.6, my new friend!), they seem to be pretty swappable. So, the model ain't it. But proprietary data (e.g. an AI that knows you really well), yes! Or doing something really hard in the real world (think: Waymo self-driving cars). Maybe via trust and safety (Anthropic is certainly making a play here). Or... how about via amazing design and good taste. Remember when ChatGPT first came out and everyone derided “AI wrappers”… well, maybe a wrapper isn't so bad, assuming you can differentiate on one or more of the above. Luke Des Cotes is the CEO of MetaLab, the agency famous for designing interfaces, including early versions of Slack and Coinbase, so don't be shocked when you hear him say that great design can be your moat. MetaLab is working with a host of AI companies (another shocker), including Windsurf (AI + code), Suno (AI + music), Pika (AI + video), and more…, which is why Luke's take on AI surprised me. He's not rah rah. He's pretty judicious actually. Luke has questions about AI's costs and appropriateness for lots of use cases like those involving kids, but mostly he objects to its mediocrity.On this episode we discuss what it takes to go beyond.We also get into:Why vibe-coded software isn't changing the world anytime soonWhy Shopify acquired a design agency right after telling employees to justify their existence against AIHow MetaLab designers are using AI to prototype in hours instead of weeksThe talent market for zero-to-one designers — and why they're harder to find than everLandlines, brick phones, and how parents are fighting back against always-on kidsChapters(01:10) - "It's a race to the mean" (03:10) - "How do you create emotional resonance?" (05:33) - AI companies are burning money (08:44) - Speed to good enough (13:51) - Is the chat here to stay or a temporary fad? (17:43) - It's hard to find great 0 to 1 design talent (22:28) - Seemingly conscious AI (25:05) - Kids, landlines, and fighting always-on culture (27:21) - Sounds like science fiction, but is here now… Links & ResourcesLuke Des Cotes on LinkedInMetaLabSupport Future Around & Find OutGet the free newsletterAnd consider becoming a paid subscriber and help future proof this thing!Sponsor the show? Are you looking to reach an audience of senior technologists and decision-makers? Email me: dan@modernproductminds.com

Join us for an informational session where Lisa Schwartz joins Ketan Mehta to discuss how pharmacies can build the road to success in 2026 through industry hurdles, trends, and policy changes.

What happens when our homes get smarter than ever… while we also crave going totally unplugged? In this episode of I AM HOME, the team explores a major shift shaping home life in 2026: design and lifestyle trends are moving in two very different directions at once. "Bells & Whistles" trends are making homes smarter with AI health tools, pet wearables, beauty gadgets and elevated kitchen upgrades, while "Less Bells & Whistles" is pushing back with fewer screens, more hands-on comfort and retro tech like turntables and CD players. The takeaway? The future of home isn't all high-tech or all unplugged – it's intentional, blending innovation with calm to create spaces that truly support everyday life. Resources: nfm.com/podcast

None of Your Goddamn BusinessJohn Morgan Salomon said something during our conversation that I haven't stopped thinking about. We were discussing encryption, privacy laws, the usual terrain — and he cut through all of it with five words: "It's none of your goddamn business."Not elegant. Not diplomatic. But exactly right.John has spent 30 years in information security. He's Swiss, lives in Spain, advises governments and startups, and uses his real name on social media despite spending his career thinking about privacy. When someone like that tells you he's worried, you should probably pay attention.The immediate concern is something called "Chat Control" — a proposed EU law that would mandate access to encrypted communications on your phone. It's failed twice. It's now in its third iteration. The Danish Information Commissioner is pushing it. Germany and Poland are resisting. The European Parliament is next.The justification is familiar: child abuse materials, terrorism, drug trafficking. These are the straw man arguments that appear every time someone wants to break encryption. And John walked me through the pattern: tragedy strikes, laws pass in the emotional fervor, and those laws never go away. The Patriot Act. RIPA in the UK. The Clipper Chip the FBI tried to push in the 1990s. Same playbook, different decade.Here's the rhetorical trap: "Do you support terrorism? Do you support child abuse?" There's only one acceptable answer. And once you give it, you've already conceded the frame. You're now arguing about implementation rather than principle.But the principle matters. John calls it the panopticon — the Victorian-era prison design where all cells face inward toward a central guard tower. No walls. Total visibility. The transparent citizen. If you can see what everyone is doing, you can spot evil early. That's the theory.The reality is different. Once you build the infrastructure to monitor everyone, the question becomes: who decides what "evil" looks like? Child pornographers, sure. Terrorists, obviously. But what about LGBTQ individuals in countries where their existence is criminalized? John told me about visiting Chile in 2006, where his gay neighbor could only hold his partner's hand inside a hidden bar. That was a democracy. It was also a place where being yourself was punishable by prison.The targets expand. They always do. Catholics in 1960s America. Migrants today. Anyone who thinks differently from whoever holds power at any given moment. These laws don't just catch criminals — they set precedents. And precedents outlive the people who set them.John made another point that landed hard: the privacy we've already lost probably isn't coming back. Supermarket loyalty cards. Surveillance cameras. Social media profiles. Cookie consent dialogs we click through without reading. That version of privacy is dead. But there's another kind — the kind that prevents all that ambient data from being weaponized against you as an individual. The kind that stops your encrypted messages from becoming evidence of thought crimes. That privacy still exists. For now.Technology won't save us. John was clear about that. Neither will it destroy us. Technology is just an element in a much larger equation that includes human nature, greed, apathy, and the willingness of citizens to actually engage. He sent emails to 40 Spanish members of European Parliament about Chat Control. One responded.That's the real problem. Not the law. Not the technology. The apathy.Republic comes from "res publica" — the thing of the people. Benjamin Franklin supposedly said it best: "A republic, if you can keep it." Keeping it requires attention. Requires understanding what's at stake. Requires saying, when necessary: this is none of your goddamn business.Stay curious. Stay Human. Subscribe to the podcast. And if you have thoughts, drop them in the comments — I actually read them.Marco CiappelliSubscribe to the Redefining Society and Technology podcast. Stay curious. Stay human.> https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/7079849705156870144/Marco Ciappelli: https://www.marcociappelli.com/John Salomon Experienced, international information security leader. vCISO, board & startup advisor, strategist.https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnsalomon/  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.